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Monday, May 28, 2012

Brian's scout troop attended a jamboree a few years ago at that centered around flight. It was held at The Flying Circus in Bealeton, VA. In addition to making and launching rockets, there was also a wonderful airshow. Afterwards, Brian had a ride in a Bi-plane!

Moxxie has a new paper line called Midway Madness that features bright
reds, blues and yellows and some great carnival-themed graphics. It was perfect for this layout! The Midway Madness Punchoutsprovided lots of frames and embellishments:

And the best part is that each of the punchouts is reversible:

For instance, I couldn't use the Carousel Horse on this layout, but when I flipped it over I found this red, white & blue spiral design.

It added a "spectacular" touch in the upper left! ;)

I have to admit that my favorite embellishment is the rosette I made with the Ticket To Ride paper.

First I cut out a chipboard circle and covered it with a thin layer of ScraPerfect'sThe Best Glue Ever. You can see here that it "dries" clear. It is really tacky and ready to use at this point - one giant homemade glue spot!

I cut off a strip of the tickets and scored it every 1/4" then acordian folded it like this:

I overlapped the ends and used a thin line of The Best Glue Ever to create this closed circle:

The next step is to gather one edge together and flatten it by gently pushing straight down. It took me several tries to figure it out, but once you get the hang of it, it is very easy.

I flipped it over, and holding the rosette shape very firmly, I centered and adhered the glue spot.

Voila! Ready for an element in the center. I added the clown circle element from the Midway Madness Punchouts.

I can see a lot of rosettes in my future!

Moxxie's Midway Madness is great for any kind of circus, carnival, county fair or arcade layout. What are you going to create with it?

Thursday, May 24, 2012

We’re looking for talented and creative individuals to help us show off
our products. Our magically perfect craft tools help you get better
results with any project.

Are you a stamper, scrapbooker,
cardmaker, mixed media artist and/or an altered artist? Do you love to
create? Can you take great photos of your work and write easy to follow
instructions? Do you like to make videos? We’re looking for you!

To apply, please email us the following:

A short bio. Tell us about yourself! We’d like to know how you’d
define your style, what kind of projects you create, if you have been a
part of a design team before, and if you’ve been published.

Why you’d like to be a part of our team.

A link to your blog.

A link to a gallery with your work.

Attach 3 of your best projects – any kind. Please keep the file size under 150K. Please describe any

special techniques you used to create them.

Any ideas you have for events or activities which will help promote ScraPerfect products.

Requirements:

Create 2 – 3 projects each month.

A tutorial to go along with one of your projects - we'd love it if you know how to do video!

Two posts per week on message boards you frequent promoting our products.

Post your work in online galleries, such as Scrapbook.com, TwoPeas, Splitcoaststampers, etc.

Occasional special projects for trade shows, etc.

In return, DT members will be provided with free product and an
opportunity for compensation for publications. We’ll also promote you on
our blog and website.

Applications must be emailed to
dt@scraperfect.com by midnight PST on Sunday, June 10th. We’ll announce
our new team by June 17th. Design team members will serve a
twelve-month term starting July 1, 2012.

Monday, May 21, 2012

Remember I told you about the National Scrapbook Day Contest from Spellbinders?
They requested layouts to be donated to them for Crops of Luv, a charity that provides scrapbooking for critically ill children and their families. Every layout that you send to theSpellbinders office by May 25th, earns you a ticket in a drawing for a wonderful prize package. They ask that each layout hold at least 5 pictures and a place for journaling. They suggest that the photo mats be taped down very lightly so they can move them around to accommodate whatever pictures they receive.

I originally showed this as a (1) page layout, but I re-worked it into a (2) pager to include more pictures and plenty of room for journaling. I figure they could be used for Legoland, so I made (6) of these layouts!

When I was in Disney with my kids I ended up with LOTS of pictures of them with just about every character you can imagine! I think this layout would work for those. There is a shaded area to the left of the title box for journaling - and Donald lifts up to reveal a flap below...for another picture or more journaling! I was able to send in (5) of these:

Next I decided to tackle the Disney Princesses. I made simple layouts for each of the princesses for a total of (6) layouts. I decided not to make title blocks because the layouts would be included in an album about a Disney trip, obviously, and better to make room for big pictures! I had fun playing with my SpellbindersLabels Twenty-Two dies to create mini-albums and special pull tags. Here are a bunch of pictures. You can click on any image to enlarge it:

The mini-albums are made to be removeable. I usually just attach them to the top of the page protector with a velcro dot once the page is in the album. I have also vellcro-ed them directly onto the page, then cut a hole in the page protector for easy access.

I really enjoyed making these layouts and included several prayers for the recipients as I worked. Thanks to Terre Fry at Spellbinders for heading up this endeavor! I shipped all (17) layouts today and the gal at UPS promised me they would get there by Friday - cross your fingers!

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

I live in a house with engineers and wannabe engineers. They use way too much tech talk around me. Did you know that the sport of wrestling is all about math and science? It's true...at least that is what they tell me! I have been wanting to do a layout about this for a long time, and Kaisercraft just gave me the perfect paper and the perfect sketch to pull it off!

The layout is based on this sketch from the Kaisercraft blog, where they have Sketch Challenges every Saturday. You should play along. They have great prizes to be won!
This is the #1 May Saturday Sketch :

The sketch had strips of paper and text on the left side. I substituted some striped paper and printed the journaling on vellum,one of my favorite things to do. I went through my collection of letter stickers to create some of the words in my journaling. It adds a bit of fun, don't you agree?

The Vellum was treated with The Perfect Crafting Pouch from ScraPerfect before it went through the printer. Afterwards, I removed the residue with the Perfect Cleaning Cloth before I adhered the stickers.

I could not do a layout with gears without pulling out my SpellbindersSprightly Sprockets dies. After they were cut, embossed, and stenciled to pull out all the detail, I adhered them to chipboard and then coated them with Diamond Glaze. They look awesome!

I am going to enter it in a color challenge over at The Play Date Cafe. The challenge this week was to create a project using the colors Seaweed, Algae, Goldfish and Black. I cannot believe how perfectly the colors from Kaisercraft'sTechnologic Collection matches their challenge!

Saturday, May 12, 2012

My son was diagnosed at age 11 with Type 1 Diabetes.
Type 1 Diabetes is an auto-immune disorder. It was not caused by anything he ate.
He is insulin dependent and pricks his fingers to test his blood sugar at least 8 times a day.
Every time he eats or drinks he has to calculate how much insulin to give himself.
He has to know the carbohydrate content of everything he eats.
He has to know what his insulin to carb ratio is - and it can and does change.
He has to give himself more insulin if his blood sugar is too high.
If he makes a mistake and gives himself too much insulin he could die.
Among other things, his blood sugar is affected by food, stress, exercise, and hormones.
Managing his blood sugar is more of an art than a science.

I used some wonderful gray and off-white papers from My Mind's Eye (Miss Caroline and Love Me collections). It was based on a National Scrapbook Day challenge I found on the Scrapbook & Cards Today blog. Becky Fleck challenged us to use this 8.5"x11" double PageMap sketch:

Another part of the challenge was that I was supposed to scrapbook myself. I am not averse to scrapping about me, but from the moment I saw this sketch, I immediately thought of an event I had not been able to scrap for more than 5 years...my son's diagnosis with Juvenile Diabetes...and I just knew that this sketch was going to make it work. I turned it into a 12"x12" layout and I will probably add a second page with more pictures of his hospital stay. (Since it wasn't about me, I couldn't enter it in the challenge.)

As the journaling says, managing diabetes is really all about numbers so that was an element that needed to be included on the page. I will never forget his blood sugar number that first day, 463, so that had to be documented, too.

The subtitle area is anchored by some washi tape I picked up at Target. The bright red polka dots remind me of the blood droplets from his finger sticks. He has to test a minimum of 8 times a day, and since he is an athlete it can easily be double that during a sports season, or when he is basal testing.

The picture is of the very first time Paul pricked a finger and tested his own blood sugar. I took it into PhotoShop and used a filter on it (Stamp) to make it a very stark black and white image. Life is so different before and after diagnosis, as different as black and white.
My Dymo label maker was loaded with red tape to add the date element along the right edge.

I love the black and white shirt he happened to be wearing proclaiming,

"I do all my own stunts."

Yes, he does!

I wanted to print the journaling on vellum so I pulled out The Perfect Crafting Pouch from ScraPerfect. I wiped it across the vellum before I fed it into the printer. When it came out I trimmed it down, added the Thickers title, and adhered it to the page with the washi tape.

It is easy to scrapbook the happy memories. The challenging times are a little more difficult, but I think they may be even more important. The grace and good humor my son shows handling the 24/7/365 challenges of this disease should be remembered.

Monday, May 7, 2012

I created this layout using paper from Moxxie's"Do It Yourself" line for a National Scrapbook Day challenge. There are no pictures on it because it is being donated to Crops of Luv, an organization that provides scrapbook pages to critically ill children and their families.

The layout is designed to hold (1)-4x6, (2)-4x4, and another 3" round picture in the gear on
the lower left. I created a cool journalling box on the right using the partial gear as a frame!

Spellbinders is sponsoring the challenge on their new Facebook Contest
Page and participants have a chance at winning a great prize package!
You can read all the details here.

I hand stamped the title using multiple fonts and Distress Inks from Ranger: Peeled Paint, Wild Honey, Fired Brick, and Vintage Photo.

Spellbinders'Sprightly Sprocketswere used to cut the cool gears. I love the detail that comes from embossing and then stenciling through those dies...

...and I think I need to add a few more sprockets before I ship it off!
I hope everybody found some Time To Play this weekend!
Susie

Friday, May 4, 2012

I have some very exciting news to share! I have been selected to join the MoxxieDesign Team! I haven't received their new releases yet, but I wanted to show you something from their great product line.

Here's a quick layout I recently made for Brian's 19th birthday:

He wanted carrot cake for his birthday and I found the perfect card for him - which then turned into the title for this layout! (hopefully you will see the little snowman has no nose and will get the joke...)

Anyway, the patterned paper is from Moxxie's V.I.P. line, which offers themed papers with a variety of family relationships. The colors are just perfect for a mature, masculine layout and the patterns are fun enough for a birthday! Brian is a little too old for streamers and balloons - at least that is what he thinks!

You can see more Moxxie products in some of my most recent posts, here and here and here. You can also take a quick look at the Moxxie Blog and meet the rest of the Moxxie Muses as they are introduced this Friday!